ABSTRACT

Since 1918, the Hollywood film industry has represented Africa on film, portraying the continent and its peoples through long-standing stereotypes. This paper specifically focuses on film representations of urban Africa over time. We analysed 50 films produced in a 100-year time span and present a three-category typology of portrayals of African cityspaces. The categories include “the absent city,” in which urban spaces are fully ignored in favour of rural landscape images that represent “Wild Africa” for the West. Most of the films we reviewed, particularly those produced before 1965, occupy this category. A second category is “the exotic colonial city,” which introduce urban scenes that emphasise city street markets. These images work to highlight a long-standing civilised/primitive binary that contrasts white protagonists with the “exotic” Africa and Africans they encounter. The third category is “the Afropessimist city.” This approach to urban representation has emerged as the primary vehicle for portraying African cities in the twenty-first century, emphasising images of urban poverty, corruption and violence. Looking forward, like African-produced films, the Afrofuturist cityscapes in the 2018 film, Black Panther may indicate a turn from 100 years of Hollywood stereotype, although we have reasons to remain cautious.

摘要

自 1918 年以来，好莱坞电影业一直在电影中代表非洲，通过长期存在的刻板印象描绘非洲大陆及其人民。本文特别关注随着时间的推移对非洲城市的电影表现。我们分析了 100 年时间跨度内制作的 50 部电影，并提出了非洲城市空间描绘的三类类型。这些类别包括“缺席的城市”，其中城市空间被完全忽略，而有利于代表西方“狂野非洲”的乡村景观图像。我们评论过的大多数电影，尤其是 1965 年之前制作的电影，都属于这一类。第二类是“异国殖民城市”，它介绍了强调城市街头市场的城市场景。这些图像突出了长期存在的文明/原始二元对立，将白人主角与他们遇到的“异国情调”非洲和非洲人形成对比。第三类是“非洲悲观主义城市”。这种城市表现方法已成为描绘 21 世纪非洲城市的主要工具，强调城市贫困、腐败和暴力的形象。展望未来，就像非洲制作的电影，2018年电影中的非洲未来主义城市景观，尽管我们有理由保持谨慎，但《黑豹》可能预示着 100 年好莱坞刻板印象的转变。